Image Credit: Everett Collection (2); Gabor Szitanyi; Suzanne Tenner; Disney; Francois Duhamel
Director J. J. Abrams has always been a pop culture polymath, and his new film Super 8 is a cinematic ode to an assortment of his influences (not least the early films of Super 8 producer Steven Spielberg.) If you wanted to see the mysterious chemical equation behind Super 8, read on… (MILD SPOILERS AHEAD) READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Courtesy of National Geographic Society; Lucasfilm Ltd.
Almost from the day Raiders of the Lost Ark premiered 30 years ago on June 12, 1981, fans have speculated about who the real-life model for Indiana Jones had been. While researching his forthcoming book, Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering the Lost City One Step at a Time (June 30; Dutton) journalist Mark Adams (brother of EW editor Jason Adams) investigated the background of one of the prime suspects — a dashing young Yale history professor, Hiram Bingham III, who found the ruins of Machu Picchu nearly 100 years ago. Here is an exclusive excerpt from the book: READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: 20903331
When MTV launched its much-ballyhooed remake of the hit British teen show Skins, the network was hoping its series would be a hit on par with other transplants from across the pond, like The Office or American Idol. Unfortunately, what it got was something a lot closer to Coupling — a highly-hyped program that was savaged by critics and quickly abandoned by audiences. Yesterday, MTV finally announced that the American Skins wouldn’t be returning to shock the PTC for a second season, admitting that the show was “a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn’t connect with a U.S. audience as much as we had hoped.”
But why didn’t this new version of a popular TV show connect with Americans? Well, according to the comments that flooded EW’s post about the cancellation, there’s an obvious explanation: the “controversial” aspects of MTV’s Skins weren’t enough to redeem the show for being poorly written and poorly acted. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Carol Rosegg
Robin Williams is the biggest thing in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. But Arian Moayed is the best thing. His portrayal of Musa, an Iraqi gardener who’s working as a translator for the American forces while dodging the ghosts of war — the vulgar spirit of Uday Hussein is, literally, stalking him — earned Moayed a Tony nomination in a year that was overflowing with excellent male performances. Entertainment Weekly talked to the actor-writer-father-of-two (who’s currently developing his first film with director Campbell Scott) about the play, his immigrant childhood in Chicago, and his very famous costar.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You were born in Iran, correct?
ARIAN MOAYED: My family moved to the States in 1985. I was that kid that didn’t know the language. I lived in Chicago proper for a while and then we moved to the suburbs. I was kind of like an only child in a weird way, because my brothers and sister were so much older than I am. I’m the baby by 17 years. Crazy, right? So I started acting just to have fun by myself. I had imaginary friends. That whole game. READ FULL STORY »
For the Mario and Zelda fans in the crowd, we have our hands-on impressions of some of Nintendo’s hottest upcoming titles, straight from its bustling, flashing headquarters on the showroom floor of the Electronic Entertainment Expo is Los Angeles. Alhough the games demoed for the newly-revealed Wii U were just promos to show off the system’s capabilities, Nintendo displayed lots of promising software for the 3DS and original Wii. Chances are, at least one of these games will pique your interest, whether your bag is more pink puff balls with feet or more drawling, rotund space hares. READ FULL STORY »
If you’ve visited EW.com at all since March, you know about Book of Mormon, the Broadway sensation penned by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q co-writer Robert Lopez. You know about the great reviews. You know about the funny songs. You know about how it will most likely sweep the Tonys on Sunday night. And you know how its leads, Andrew Rannells and Josh Gad, are nominated against each other in the Best Actor in a Musical category. The dapper Rannells recently visited the EW office to chat about the competition (or lack thereof) between them, demonstrate his “If I lose” reaction face, talk up the musical’s writers, and explain why he won’t be looking at the audience during his Tony night performance of “I Believe.” Check out the exclusive video below. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Dario Cantatore/Getty Images
Alec Baldwin has penned what some are calling a defense of Anthony Weiner for The Huffington Post. I didn’t read his piece, titled Anthony Weiner is a Modern Human Being, as a defense, but as simply an explanation for why the congressman could find himself in a Twitter scandal. As Baldwin sees it, Weiner is a very busy man who needs to take the edge off. “For some people, regardless of occupation, that could mean booze, drugs, gambling, food or shopping,” Baldwin writes. “For high functioning men like Weiner and other officials who have lived through such scandals, who are constantly on the go, that leaves one tried and true source of a reliable high. The affirmation that comes when someone lets you know they want to sleep with you. Or even cyber-sleep with you.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images
In an arbitration claim filed today, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society alleges that the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark owe royalties to Julie Taymor, who directed the musical until her highly publicized departure last March. (The suit was first reported by USA Today.) A rep for the show declined to comment on the suit.
After months of delays and previews, Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is finally set to open June 14 on Broadway.
Read more:
At long last, ‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’ is a ‘frozen’ show
Bono on ‘Spider-Man’ musical: ‘We were way out of our depths’
‘Spider-Man’ reboots on Broadway: What did they change?
‘Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark’: Which review is the harshest?
I like you Mandy Moore, I really do. Sure, your music career hasn’t always been perfect (no one’s missing your pop days like… “Candy”?) and neither has your movie career, for that matter (for every Tangled and Saved!, there’s a Because I Said So and License To Wed), but darn it, I still like you!
So, it pains me to write this, but you, Mandy Moore, are currently starring in one of the worst movie of all-time. At least, according to Rotten Tomatoes, anyway.
Yes, the 27-year-old’s latest venture into dreadful rom com territory, Love, Wedding, Marriage, currently stands at a zero percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The title alone is pretty terrible for the Dermot Mulroney-directed flick, about a marriage counselor (Moore) who struggles with her new husband (Kellan Lutz) and her in-the-midst-of-a-divorce-parents, played by Jane Seymour and James Brolin. If you’re already groaning at the concept alone — a marriage counselor who can’t save marriages! — you most certainly aren’t the only one. Nobody, not a single critic, found anything remotely redeeming about the flick. That means the movie, which is currently in theaters and available on OnDemand, is worse than Battlefield Earth, Freddy Got Fingered, and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, but on par with Ballistic Ecks vs. Sever, which shares its, er, honor. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Chris Hatcher/PR Photos
Though there’s no established rules, movies typically get translated into television shows, and vice versa, in one of two ways. A movie becomes a hit, like M*A*S*H, and the studio arranges to bring those characters to the small screen quickly thereafter. Or, a classic television show, like The Fugitive, is relaunched as a movie decades later for a new generation of fans. Rarely do you see what NBC is currently attempting: resurrecting a movie, The Firm, as a television series — 18 years after the Tom Cruise hit. Yes, In the Heat of the Night successfully pulled off a similar trick — 21 years after the original film — but typically, networks aren’t looking that far in the past for their next hit show.
That said, there’s some hope for NBC’s mid-season replacement. One, they have the John Grisham fanbase that bought 7 million copies of The Firm, a fanbase that, no disrespect to Cruise and director Sydney Pollack, rather preferred the book to the film. READ FULL STORY »
